This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C xc2xa7 119 from an application entitled Television Based on Operating System and Method of Displaying an Initial Screen Thereof earlier filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on Aug. 23, 2000, and there duly assigned Ser. No. 2000-48973 by that Office.
1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a television based on an operating system (OS) and a method of displaying an initial screen.
2. Description of Related Art
A television based on an operating system, for example, a computer-based television and a set top box, cannot be viewed by a viewer until a booting process is completed. When the power is supplied to the television, the central processing unit (CPU) executes a boot loader program stored in a ROM to perform the booting process. Then, the viewer can view the television broadcast after an application program is executed. The boot loader program is programmed to check a main memory, the ROM, the devices mounted on peripheral component interconnect (PCI) slots, a hard disk, and a floppy disk, and to load the operating system (OS) into the main memory to boot the system. Such a digital television is constructed to be based on the operating system, and thus the user cannot manipulate the television until the loading of the operating system is completed. However, since a time to execute the boot loader program is lengthy, the user could wait for a long time (about 10 to about 30 seconds) without being able to view the television broadcast.
An example of a computer-based television is provided by U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,044 to Mark P. Vaughan entitled Method And Apparatus For Controlling A Display Monitor In A PC/TV Convergence System.
Hereinafter, a configuration and an initial screen display method of a television based on an operating system being contemplated by the Assignee of the present invention are explained in detail, centering on the computer-based television.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a computer-based television. As shown in FIG. 1, the computer-based television includes a central processing unit (CPU) 10, a ROM 20, a random access memory (RAM) 30, a north and south bridge 40, a hard disk drive (HDD) 50, a PCI bridge 60, and a television card 70.
CPU 10 executes the boot loader program stored in the ROM 20 when power is supplied to the television. RAM 30 loads the operating system and the application programs, which are stored in HDD 50, by a control of CPU 10. At this point, since CPU 10 has only a CPU core, CPU 10 requires a bridge that connects it with chips having different interfaces to connect external chips. A chip to connect CPU 10 with ROM 20, RAM 30, and a PCI bus is called the xe2x80x9cnorth bridgexe2x80x9d. Similarly, a chip to connect a PCI bridge with HDD 50, a USB (not shown), a UART (not shown), peripheral integrated circuits (ICs: not shown), and the like is called the xe2x80x9csouth bridgexe2x80x9d. The north and south bridge 40 is referred to as a chip that incorporate the north bridge and the south bridge. The PCI bridge 60 serves as an intermediate connection unit to connect various chips with the PCI bus. Even though not shown, a graphic card, a sound card and the like are included.
Television card 70 includes a tuner 71, a channel decoder 72, a transport stream demultiplexer 73, a video decoder 74, an audio decoder 75, and first and second digital-to-analog converters 76 and 77. Tuner 71 receives a broadcasting wave of a certain frequency from an antenna (not shown) under a control of CPU 10. Channel decoder 72 converts the broadcasting wave from tuner 71 into a transport stream. Transport stream demultiplexer 73 converts the transport stream output from channel decoder 72 into an audio packet stream and a video packet stream. Video decoder 74 restores the video packet stream, and audio decoder 75 restores the audio packet stream. Digital-to-analog converter 76 converts a digital video signal output from video decoder 74 into an analog video signal and outputs it to be displayed on a screen (not shown). Digital-to-analog converter 77 converts a digital audio signal output from audio decoder 75 into an analog audio signal and outputs it to a speaker (not shown).
FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an initial screen display method of the computer-based television of FIG. 1. First, CPU 10 checks whether power is supplied on or not. When power is supplied, CPU 10 executes the boot loader program stored in ROM 20 (step 210). The boot loader program performs a hardware basic test. For example, it checks ROM 20, RAM 30, HDD 50, and other various devices mounted therein (step 220). CPU 10 then loads the operating system, stored in HDD 50, into RAM 30 (step 230). CPU 10 loads the application programs stored in the HDD 50 into RAM 16 (step 240). The CPU 10 then performs an application program (step 250). CPU 10 then processes an input of a user (step 260). In other words, in order to view a television broadcast output through television card 70, the user waits to execute the application program until after a completion of the booting process.
Even though not explained, a set top box according to the related art also is operated in a similar manner to the computer-based television.
As described above, since the application programs cannot be executed until after the loader program performs the system booting completely, the television based on the operating system can be viewed only after a completion of the system booting process, whereupon there comes the problem in that the user waits for a long time (about 10 to about 30 seconds) without viewing the television broadcast.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a television based on an operating system in which the viewer can view a television broadcast directly after the television is turned on. U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,383 to Hiroyuki Chimoto et al. entitled Multimedia Television Receiver And Method Of Booting The Same teaches that while the CPU is performing bootstrap processing immediately after the power switch of the television receiver is turned on, a DMA device is initialized, causing a monitor to display a television image being received, no matter whether an operating system has been activated or not. While the television image is being displayed the CPU continues to perform the bootstrap processing in order to activate the operating system.
To overcome the problems described above, preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a television based on an operating system in which a viewer can view a television broadcast before completion of a system booting process.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of displaying an initial screen of a television based on an operating system to enable a viewer to view the television broadcast before completion of the system booting process.
In order to achieve the above objects, the preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a television based on an operating system, including: a first memory storing a boot loader program, the boot loader program performing a hardware basic test and a booting process; a television signal generating portion outputting a television broadcast; a second memory storing a MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) control program and channel information, the MPEG control program driving the television signal generating portion to output the television broadcast corresponding to the channel information; and a central processing unit executing the boot loader program and executing the MPEG control program after the hardware basic test of the boot loader program.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention further provides a method of displaying an initial screen of a television based on an operating system, the television including a boot loader program, a MPEG program, and a channel information, including: executing the boot loader program to perform a hardware basic test; executing the MPEG control program to output a television broadcast of a channel corresponding to the channel information; and completing a booting.
The first memory is a read only memory (ROM). The second memory is one of a nonvolatile memory and is one of a flash memory and an EEPROM. The first and second memories may be the same memory, and the first and second memories are one of a flash memory and an EEPROM. The second memory further stores a volume channel. The television signal generating portion is a television card including a tuner, a channel decoder, a demultiplexer, audio and video decoders, and first and second digital-to-analog converters.
Using the television based on the operating system according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention an initial screen can be displayed before a system booting is completely performed. Therefore, the viewer can view the television without waiting for a long time.